Machine for punching metal.



No. 808,712. PATENTED JAN. 2, 1906.

G. G. ANDREWS.

MACHINE FOR PUNGHING METAL.

APPLICATION TILED MAR.22, 1904.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

5 H E m wwwa No 808,712. PATENTED JAN. 2, 1906. G. O. ANDREWS.

MACHINE FOR PUNGHING METAL.

APPLIGATION FILED MAR.22,1904.

Z SHEETS-SHEET 2.

E95. .5 A5 A1 74 v 42 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIOE.

MACHINE FOR PUNCHIING METAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 2, 1906.

Application filed March 22, 1904:. Serial No. 199,343.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE O. ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Punching Metal; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to machines for riveting, punching, and shearing metal and for doing other similar work, and has for its object to improve the same in the several particulars hereinafter noted.

To the above ends the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described, and defined in the claims.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein the machine illustrated is shown as equipped with rivetingdies.

In the drawings like characters indicate like parts throughout the severalviews.

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation with some parts broken away and with some parts sectioned, showing the improved machine. Fig. 2 is a detail view in plan with some parts broken away and with some parts sectioned, showing the cross-head, the drivingeccentries, the connecting eccentric-rod, and certain parts carried thereby, said parts being shown on a larger scale than in Fig. 1. Fig. 8 shows the parts illustrated in Fig. 2 and also a portion of the yoke-frame, said parts being shown partly in side elevation and partly in section on the line a m of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detail View showing in section several of the removable driving-eccentrics, and Fig. 5 is a detail in transverse section on the linear: m of Fig. 3.

The numeral 1 indicates the heavy bifurcated casting or yoke which forms the body of the frame. This yoke 1 is preferably formed with a base-flange 2, by means of which it may be anchored to the floor, and to one jaw thereof is secured a bearing-bracket 3, in which certain of the running-shafts of the machine are mounted. To the extreme upper end of this same prong of said yoke is rigidly secured a suitable cross-head guide 4 and a heavy projecting lug 5.

A heavy cross head 6 is mounted for straight-line-reciproeating movements in the cross-head guide 4. To the forwardly-projecting end of this cross-head is rigidly and preferably detachably secured a forwardlyprojecting hub-like die-holder 7, in which is loosely seated a horizontally-disposed and forwardly-projecting plunger-like rivetingdie 8. The die-seat formed in the hub 7 is extended back into the cross-head 6, as shown at 9, and terminates in a recess 10, that opens at the top of said cross-head. A hardened anvil-block 11 is loosely seated in the die-holder 7 back of the die 8. This anvil-block is formed with a perforation 12,that registers with the die-seat and the extension 9 thereof, so that the said die may be passed therethrough under conditions hereinafter noted. The said anvil-block 11 is adapted to be lifted vertically from working position. Just in front of the anvil-block 11 the dieholder 7 is formed with a narrow pocket 13, which opens at the top thereof and extends at all points beyond the periphery of the die 8. As shown, this pocket 13 is rectangular in form and is formed in part in the anvilblock 1 1. Into this pocket back of the inner end of the die 8 is placed a so-called safety plate 14, as shown, in the form of a disk. This safety-plate is preferably of soft steel of known strength, and it serves a very important function, which will be hereinafter fully set forth.

The die 8 cooperates with a fixed die 15, secured on the forward prong of the yoke 1.

The cross-head 6 receives a reciprocating movement from an eccentric and an eccen trio-rod, which eccentric may be driven in quite a number of different ways, but is conveniently driven by the mechanism illustrated in the drawings, which mechanism, briefly described, is as follows: The numeral 16 indicates a countershaft mounted in suitable bearings formed in the bearing bracket 3 and provided at one end with a pulley 18, over which a power-driven belt (not shown) will be run to impart motion to the machine. At its other end the counter-shaft 16 carries a friction-clutch of the ordinary construction, (indicated as an entirety by the numeral 19,) the sliding member of which is caused to rotate with the said shaft by any suitable means, and the other member of which is loosely mounted on said shaft and connected to rotate with the pinion 22. The

sliding clutch member is thrown into and out of engagement with the clutch member by a shipper-lever. (Not shown.) The pinion 22 IIO meshes with a large spur-gear 25, carried by a counter-shaft 26, mounted in suitable bearings formed in the bearing-bracket 3 and provided at. its other end with a bevel-pinion 28. The pinion 28 meshes with a large bevelgear 29, carried by a vertical shaft 30, mount ed at its lower end in a bearing-hub 31 of the bracket 3 and mounted at its upper end in the heavy bearing-lug 5, heretofore noted. An eccentric 32 fits loosely on the projecting upper end of the shaft 30, but is held to rotate therewith by a heavy key 33, which is advisably secured to the said shaft. Gravity alone serves to quite securely hold the said eccentric in working position; but it is ad visably further held by small turn-buttons 34, pivoted to the end of said shaft and overlapping the said eccentric, as best shown in Fig. 2. In practice I provide a plurality of these eccentrics 32, all having the same peripheral diamter and all adapted to fit on the upper end of the shaft 30, but each having its shaft-seat located at a different eccentricity to its center, so that each eccentric will give a different throw to the cross-head. The positioned eccentric is connected with the cross-head 6 by a heavy eccentric-rod made up of two sections 35 36, connected by a turnbuckle or heavy sleeve 37. The turnbuckle 37 has right and left screw-threaded engagements with the stems of the sections 35 36, so that the length of the eccentric-rod may be varied by rotating the said turnbuckle or coupling-sleeve 37. The section 35 is formed at its outer end with an eccentricstrap 38, which fits around the eccentric 32 and, as shown, is held against lateral displacement by set-screws 39, the points of which loosely engage with a peripheral groove 40 of the said eccentric. The forward end of the section 36 is connected to the cross-head 6 by aheavy pin 41, which pin, as shown, is secured against rotation by means of a set-screw 42, seated in the said cross-head. The said crosshead, it will be noted, is cut away at 43 to permit free movements of the eccentric-rod and is further bifurcated to receive the rounded head of the section 36. The coupling sleeve 37 is conveniently held against accidental rotation by a pin 37, dropped through one of a plurality of perforations 37 in said sleeve and engaged with a keyway 36" in the rod-section 36.

The means by which the eccentric is rotated, and hence by which the cross-head and die are reciprocated, has now been fully described, and from what has been said it has been made clear that by substituting the proper eccentric any desired throw may be given to the said cross-head and die. It has also been made clear that independent of this throw or reciprocating movement the crosshead and die may be adjusted into proper relative positions with respect to the fixed die by adjustments of the eccentricrod.

The device above described while generally referred to as a riveting-machine is, as has already been indicated, capable of many other uses, and particularly for use as a punching or shearing machine, the only changes required being the substitution of the proper punching-dies or shearing-tools in the place of the riveting-dies.

The chief object of this invention, which objects are fully accomplished, is the provision of a comparatively cheap machine which will be as good or better than a hydraulic or fluid-pressure machine for the purposes above indicated. Hydraulic machines of this character are very expensive, and eccentric or crank driven machines or generally mechanically-driven machines as hitherto constructed have been subject to the serious objection that they are liable to break or strain themselves when subjected to pressure in excess of the strains which they were designed to withstand. Otherwise stated, under an eccentric or crank movement the cross-head and movable die or cutting member under each rotation of the eccentric or crank would be given a positive and predetermined movement, and if the piece of metal placed between the dies or shear-blades was heavier than that intended to be treated or acted upon, and hence could not be cut, some part of the machine would be broken. This danger I overcome in my present machine by interposing a safety plate or disk (shown in the drawings at 14) between the anvil block or base or reaction and the inner end of the die or tool 8. This safety plate or disk is of such thickness and strength that whenever the pressure on the die reaches or approaches the point where any of the parts of the machine are liable to be broken down or unduly strained the said die will cut through the said plate or disk, and thus relieve the machine from breaking strains.

Safety plates or disks of different thickness or of different puncture-resisting strength may be employed, and by the use of these the maximum pressure available upon the dies or tools may be varied but of course in no case should a plate or disk be employed having a breaking or puncturing strength great enough to endanger the machine.

When the inner end of the die or tool 8 is forced through the safety plate or disk, it will punch therefrom a slug 14 (Indicated in Fig. 3 by dotted lines.) This slug thus punched from the plate 14 will be forced into the pocket 10, from which it may be removed by the fingers or otherwise. The punctured safety plate or disk 14 when the die 8 is again drawn outward may be readily removed from the pocket 13, and a new plate will then of course be substituted therefor.

From what has been said it will be understood that the machine described is capable of modification within the scope of my invention as herein set forth and claimed. The so-called safety plate or disk may take a great many dilierent forms and may be applied in a great many different ways at Various places where it will be subjected to the pressure ut upon the dies or tools.

What fclaim, and desire to secure by Let 13ers Patent of the United States, is as folows:

1. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a pair of cooperating tools for action on the work under pressure, of supports for said tools, a perforated anvilblock in one of said supports back of the tool held thereby, and a puncturable safety-plate seated in said latter-noted support between said anvil-block and the adjacent end of the tool, whereby said safety-plate will be punctured by the said tool and cooperating anvilblock under excessive pressure.

2. In a machine of the character described,

the combination with a pair of tools for action on the Work under pressure, of supports for said tools, one thereof being movable with respect to the other, a plate-receiving pocket in one of said supports, a puncturable safety-plate fitting in said pocket, back of the stem of one of the tools, an annular anvil seated in the said support, back of said pocket, and an open second pocket in the said support connected with the former pocket by a passage forming an extension of the passage through said anvil, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE C; ANDREWS. Witnesses:

H. D. KILGoRE', F. D. MERCHANT. 

